MG has issued a guarded response to news that the firm could be on the verge of a return to the World Rally Championship.

The Chinese-owned British brand confirmed it had been contacted by a private team regarding a potential MG3 WRC, but denied any negotiations had taken place.

A car has been built and the private team - which includes Ukranian driver Oleksii Tamrazov - is now seeking approval from the Birmingham marque.

A spokesperson from MG told AUTOSPORT: "We have been approached about this, but we have nothing to confirm this year beyond our British Touring Car Championship programme."

MG runs MG6s in the BTCC in collaboration with Triple Eight.

Tamrazov, an occasional WRC and European Rally Championship competitor, told Italian website Rally Emotion that the programme just required MG approval as funding was in place.

"In a letter, MG said: 'Currently, this year is planned and budget allocated and we have two motorsport programmes already to deliver. It would be much better for us to plan this for next year.'

"The programme will be financed by independent sources, not from MG. So they need just to decide if they want to go on with this programme.

"There are a few possible development companies who are interested in this. However, at this time it's not possible to have full negotiations and chose one to work with until confirmation from MG about the project.

"The idea is deeper than just building MG WRC cars, but this is not the time to discuss this until [the programme] is confirmed from MG."

MG has not run a full WRC programme since 1986, when Tony Pond and Malcolm Wilson drove Metro 6R4s.

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